Bob Barr on Government Reform

Put Constitution front & center

Bob Barr, four-term Republican congressman from Georgia, is the candidate of the Libertarian Party, the oldest and largest of the third-party organizations. The three debaters agreed that the US is veering off-course from the Constitution.

“We hear
about Joe the Plumber or hear about how much money Senator Obama is going to spend or how much money Senator McCain is going to spend,” Barr said, “but we don’t hear about the Constitution. That’s what we need to put back front and center.”

Clinton & Reno covered up 1996 illegal campaign finance

Attorney General Janet Reno faced two problems inside the Justice Department in her scheme to cover up the illegal campaign finance activity that surrounded Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. FBI director Louis Freeh and Charles LaBella, the
chairman of the campaign finance investigation task force, both independently concluded that substantial criminal conduct had taken place in connection with the 1996 Clinton campaign.

Furthermore, Reno herself hardly kept her distance from the
fund-raising scheme. In just one example, she received a personal memo updating her on the Democratic National Committee’s plans to raise $100 million prior to the 1996 elections. The memo included a hand-scrawled note to “Janet” from a top party
fund-raiser. Needless to say, this put Reno in an awkward position.

Reno kept documents [from this investigation] hidden from public view. If the Freeh and LaBella memos had become public in 1997, they would have galvanized our [impeachment] efforts.

Voted NO on banning soft money and issue ads.

Restrict campaign donations from foreigners or 3rd parties.

Barr co-sponsored restricting campaign donations from foreigners or 3rd party

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to increase the penalties imposed for making or accepting contributions in the name of another and to prohibit foreign nationals from making any campaign-related disbursements.

Increase civil & criminal penalties for knowing and willful violations of the prohibition against making or accepting contributions in the name of another.

Sets both civil and criminal fines at not less than 300% of the amount involved in the violation and not more than the greater of $50,000 or 1,000% of such amount.

Mandates a criminal fine or two years' imprisonment, or both.

Limits criminal penalties to violations involving an amount aggregating $1,000 or more during a calendar year.

Changes from discretionary to mandatory the authority of the Federal Election Commission to refer to the Attorney General any instance of probable cause that a violation of such prohibition has occurred.

Revises the current ban on contributions by foreign nationals to encompass all disbursements by foreign nationals, including any disbursement to a political committee of a political party and any disbursement for an independent expenditure.

Government is too big, too intrusive, too easy with money.

Barr signed the Contract with America:

This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:

Require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;

Select a major independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud, and abuse;

Cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;